


Guess That’s All There Ever Was

by oliviathecf



Series: Hal's Birthday, 2020 [4]
Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics)
Genre: 1990s, Alternate Universe - 1990s, Angst, Love/Hate, M/M, Parallax - Freeform, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22783006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliviathecf/pseuds/oliviathecf
Summary: He'll never understand the myth behind the monster.
Relationships: Guy Gardner/Hal Jordan
Series: Hal's Birthday, 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1634401
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	Guess That’s All There Ever Was

**Author's Note:**

> This is the only fic in this series that doesn't actually feature Hal as the main character. I liked the idea so much though, that I just decided to run with it.
> 
> Title is from Time Trap by Built To Spill.
> 
> Enjoy!

He regularly found himself in Guy’s bar those days. He wasn’t there to drink, although he never refused the (free) beer that Guy ended up pouring him, he came to get advice. Because, while Guy wasn’t a Green Lantern anymore, he certainly had lived the life of one.

And, God knows that Kyle could use a lot of advice. He had unlimited power at his finger tips and yet he still had very little clue how to use it.

Guy was closing up when he walked in, polishing up some of the glasses. He smiled at Kyle, setting down the glass and leaning against the counter.

“Hey, kid, pull down a chair.” Guy said, jerking his head in the direction of one of the upturned barstools.

He pulled one of the stools down and made himself comfortable, elbows resting on the newly cleaned bartop. Guy poured him a beer without him even having to ask, and he drank deeply from it.

“Rough night, kid?”  
"'Rough night'? Rough week." Kyle snorted into his beer, taking another deep sip.  
"Yeah, I saw ole Jordan making a mess of this shithole island on the news."

He sighed, crossing his arms. He sounded a little sad in a way, but Kyle didn't really know why. He had heard that they didn't even _like_ each other, but Guy looked almost in pain as he poured himself a finger of whiskey. He hesitated and then poured himself another finger, dropping an ice cube into the glass before putting it up to his lips and drinking like he was the one who had a rough week.

Maybe he had. Maybe Kyle needed to stop assuming he was the only one who had problems in the world, but it was hard when his problems always seemed to be getting worse. Alex died and the weight of the ring was really bringing him down, not to mention his current girl problems, it all couldn’t get much worse. He shifted in his hair, the bruises that Parallax left on him really getting to him.

“It’s his birthday today,” Guy said, drawing Kyle out of his thoughts, “well. Hal’s.”

Kyle had only heard of the man behind the sharp rows of teeth and stormy expressions in a way that was very veiled, very hidden. He didn’t know Hal Jordan but he knew the way Parallax’s fists felt, the way his voice sounded when he was being cruel on purpose. Everything good said about the man behind the monster was only in references that he’d never understand, Hal Jordan was dead and gone. There was only Parallax, and that was the only person he’d know.

The monster who wore Hal Jordan’s face, the man and the monster two different things. Both of them seemed to make the Warrior upset in ways that Kyle had never seen before.

“I don’t even know why I remember his birthday, I just can’t seem to forget about him these days.” Guy said after a few moments of drinking in silence, eyes cast towards the statue in the corner.

Another aspect of the myth, Parallax was evil in way that Kyle could never understand, and yet, Hal Jordan was memorialized in the bar of a man who seemed to have hated him. They were always at odds, but he was memorialized in Guy’s bar. He couldn’t begin to understand their relationship, hearing the stories of how Hal took his ring away so violently, mixed with the starry eyed expression on his face when he swore that Hal Jordan was a good man.

Maybe it was guilt. Maybe...maybe it was something else entirely, something that Kyle couldn’t begin to comprehend. 

“He was a good man, y’know.” Guy said, and it sounded like he was saying it to himself most of all.  
“So you’ve said.” Kyle responded.  
“Hopefully, you’ll get a chance to meet him under better circumstances, Kyle.”

He wanted to, wanted to see the man that had Guy looking like he had lost something. Like he had lost everything.

“I...I never hated him, kid.”   
“I know.”

He didn’t know. But it didn’t matter because Guy was selling it so hard that he wanted to believe it. Maybe like he wanted to believe it himself as well.

“I just...I hope he knows that,” Guy said, speaking into his glass, “we were always at odds but I never thought that he was a bad guy.”

Guy drained the rest of his glass in one go. He slammed it a little too hard onto the bartop, Kyle was worried that it might crack. He saw Guy go for the bottle, hesitate, and then stop himself. Instead, he slid his glass into the sink with a sigh, leaning back against the bar.

“Sorry to be such a downer today, kiddo, you don’t need to hear me whinin’ about Jordo.”

The nickname felt easy as it dripped from his lips, like it was something to be said affectionately, like it wasn’t something that should be spat out like a curse. Like it was something that was said in a way that was supposed to be insulting before, like Guy had thought better of it.

“It’s okay. I uh. I get it.”

And a part of him did in a way. He knew that he would’ve been a wreck if it was Alex’s birthday. The comparison of Hal to Alex was almost too easy to make, and Kyle didn’t really know why he was making it but it felt right in some way. Like there was some sort of truth in it, the pain in Guy’s face. He had lost someone important, even if Hal Jordan wasn’t strictly dead, he was gone in every other way. And his face lorded over the bar like a monument to everything wrong, it was easy to make the comparison.

“Yeah...yeah, I bet you do, Kyle.” Guy said, voice bitter in ways that he could actually understand.

The weight of their conversation settled on Kyle’s shoulder and he couldn’t help but think that he understood Guy a bit more, that they had actually gotten somewhere for once. He finished his drink in relative silence, passing the empty glass to Guy after draining the last of the foam that clung to the bottom of the mug.

“You want another?”  
“Nah, I should probably head off. I’m visiting John early tomorrow, and I’ve got some work to do.”  
“Alright, cool. Tell him that I say hi.”  
“I will.”

He shrugged his coat on over his shoulders, and Guy watched him with a small smile on his lips.

“Don’t worry about the bill, kid, you can get me back next time.”  
“Yeah, yeah, just put it on my tab.”

Guy’s smile grew into a grin, and he stuck his hand out for Kyle to shake. He wasn’t used to the roughness of Guy’s hand, but he was starting to know how to navigate a handshake from Guy Gardner.

He was starting to learn a lot of things about the man. About what it meant to be a Green Lantern.

Kyle left the bar with one last wave, turning towards the door. He nearly ran into a hooded figure as he pulled the door open. The hooded man regarded him and pushed past him.

He thought he should’ve told him that the bar was closed or dropped into some sort of fighting stance, but a thought in the back of his mind told him that he might not want to see what happened next. So, instead, he left Guy to his memories and the hooded man who looked a little too familiar.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can find me at these various places online, feel free to hit me up about this fic or some of my other ones!  
> [ Fic Blog. ](https://fanfictionolivia.tumblr.com/)  
> [ Twitter. ](https://twitter.com/fficolivia)


End file.
